IT WAS uglier than a squashed Easter bunny on the M62, but somehow Liverpool roused themselves to rescue a win from the flickering embers of their Champions League dream.

Two goals in the last five minutes from arguably the Reds' strongest hearts, Sami Hyypia and Steven Gerrard (left with Gerard Houllier), could well prove of even greater significance than Saturday's derby glory.

And how that inspired, professional performance against their Merseyside rivals seemed a world away as Liverpool reverted to the kind of disjointed and lacklustre football that has characterised their play this season.

Where 48 hours earlier there were red giants all over the pitch, yesterday nobody seemed to want to take responsibility for what they all surely knew was a potential banana skin, even given Charlton's appalling recent form.

At Goodison Park they had effortlessly slapped down the threat posed by their resurgent neighbours; but here again reared the kind of Liverpool performance that had seen them beaten so comfortably at the Valley in December.

And in an ironic twist that perfectly encapsulated the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the two performances, Saturday's hero Danny Murphy was Monday's zero, reduced to hurling a water bottle at Phil Thompson in an impudent response to his second-half substitution.

But, as Gerard Houllier will be the first to insist, once the dust has settled all that will matter from this game is that Liverpool take three points towards what increasingly looks like being the Champions League place decider at Stamford Bridge on May 11.

Chelsea's 4-1 swatting of Everton yesterday was a timely reminder just how difficult that winner-takes-all game will be, and how Houllier must hope Newcastle maintain their alarming slide so his side travel to west London needing perhaps just a draw.

But first to yesterday, and how flat Liverpool were. Emotionally and physically tired they no doubt were after Saturday's main event, but then every side has the same kind of fixture congestion at this stage of the season - and what's more Charlton had had to travel 200 miles in between their Easter double.

Buoyed by the reassuring return of Hyypia at the heart of defence, Liverpool looked set to brush aside a team arriving at Anfield with five defeats in their last six and, according to their manager Alan Curbishley, fearing a sound thrashing.

But with the urgency of a side whose pride has been not just punctured but mercilessly assaulted in recent weeks, Charlton looked up for the fight from the first whistle. 1954 was the last time they had won at Anfield, but clearly nobody had told them. Within the opening 10 minutes they could have scored had Kevin Lisbie not snatched at a header when he had enough space to chest the ball down and pick his spot.

Despite another lifeless display in the derby, Houllier had persisted with Emile Heskey alongside Michael Owen, and encouragingly the pair were involved in Liverpool's first chance, with the former laying off his England colleague and forcing Dean Kiely into a sharp save. It was to be a false dawn.

Charlton, disposed of 2-0 by Birmingham on Saturday and on the receiving end of a 6-1 hammering by Leeds at home recently, arrived with a form guide second only to relegated Sunderland in terms of fewest points, but for the first half they were the considerably better side.

Indeed had they possessed greater incisiveness up front, Liverpool could well have been behind long before they were.

Hyypia was forced into a crucial last-gasp tackle with Lisbie otherwise clear in the 20th minute, and Djimi Traore was performing similar heroics with the same player 10 minutes later.

Even if there was a large slice of luck about their goal, just over a minute after the break, even the most one-eyed Red had to admit that it was not undeserved.

Traore, otherwise enjoying another solid game alongside Hyypia, was bringing the ball down on the edge of the Liverpool box when he crumpled, disastrously gifting the ball to Shaun Bartlett, who ran on and squeezed the ball under Jerzy Dudek, the ball bouncing in off the far post.

Dazed, for a time Liverpool toiled but without any threat whatsoever, a speculative long-ranger from Gerrard in the 65th minute the only time Kiely's hands were stung.

The Addicks were hardly encamped in their own half, either, with Traore called into emergency action again to snuff out Bartlett's purposeful charge on goal.

The situation called for drastic change, but Murphy, scorer of that sublime winner on Saturday, had perhaps thought himself exempt.

Bruno Cheyrou was introduced for Diouf, with Vladimir Smicer (left) coming on for Murphy. That clearly upset the England midfielder, who was involved in an angry exchange with Thompson before he hurled his water bottle in the assistant manager's direction, the said vessel ending up some five yards on to the field of play. Houllier duly scolded his player's uncustomary snap.

At that point, with their dug-out having displayed more passion in a fleeting second than the team had managed all afternoon, Liverpool's season appeared to be disappearing swiftly down the plughole.

But then came a memorable finale. Baros had offered considerably more down the right flank than the ineffective Heskey since replacing him at half-time, and his persistence won the corner that led to the leveller.

John Arne Riise pumped in another excellent ball, and with the away side ball-watching Hyypia stuck out a foot to force the ball beyond the despairing Kiely.

Charlton had one last hurrah, Dudek delving deep for a terrific close-range save from Euell's header.

But the momentum was with Liverpool, and what a goal to save a season. Gerrard, so often the man for a Reds crisis, fought like a spooked terrier on the left flank, somehow evading two defenders before turning inside and firing beyond Kiely.

The dugout, so sulkily quiet after Murphy's spat, rose as one, a team united again, with Sammy Lee leading the celebrations. Dudek, no doubt feeling he deserved a share of the plaudits after his save moments earlier, had charged the length of the pitch to join his joyous team-mates.

Stirring stuff, and quite possibly the most important five minutes of Liverpool's season.